PUTLEY is a small parish distant 5½ miles W. of Ledbury, 10 N.N.E. of Ross, 10 E.S.E. of Hereford, and about 2 S. of Ashperton station on the Worcester and Hereford railway. It is in Greytree hundred, Ledbury union, petty sessional division, and county court district, and Tarrington polling district. The population in 1861 was 197; in 1871, 192; inhabited houses, 10 families or separate occupiers, 49; area of parish, 572a. 2r. 26p.; annual rateable value, £1,142. John Riley, Esq., of Putley court, is lord of the manor and chief landowner. The soil is a heavy clay, producing wheat, beans, hops, fruit, roots, &c. Putley is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of South Froome; living, a rectory; value, £114, with residence and 25 acres of glebe; patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Hereford; rector, Rev. Augustus Frederic Denham, B.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, who was instituted in 1869. The church has undergone complete restoration, and was reopened May 7th, 1876. The total cost was over 91,300, of which £1,000 was given by J. Riley, Esq., of Putley court, at the foot of whose lawn the little church stands.

The architect was T. Blashill, Esq., of London, and the builders, Messrs. Collins & Cullis, of Tewkesbury. In the débris of the north wall of the nave a considerable quantity of fragments of Roman bricks, roofing tiles, coarse pottery, and mortar was found, which would lead to the belief that a Roman building of some description once existed on or near the spot. In the churchyard is an old stone cross, on which are engraved the Crucifixion, the Virgin and Child, St. John, and St. James. The register begins with the year 1598. The charities belonging to the parish amount to about £4 yearly. The national school was built and endowed by a former rector (Rev. P.G. Blencowe) and the then owners of the Putley court estate. It has been recently enlarged and otherwise improved, chiefly at the expense of John Riley, Esq. The present average attendance is about 40. Putley Court, the seat of John Riley, Esq., J.P., is a, handsome modern mansion; the grounds afford some rich and well-wooded scenery.